Xixax Film Forum

Making a long story short, I was signed up for a travel abroad program to Istanbul, and the program went awry due to some problems with the teaching staff.  I will be getting a full refund of just over 2000$.  I am looking to use this cash for a new video camera.   Does anyone have any suggestions on a good place to browse, or what would be the best purchase for this kind of small budget?


Thanks in advance!

www.dvxuser.com prolly

neil, you're best off not spending $2k on a camera. it will buy you middle-of-the-road technology that will be frustratingly limited now and completely obsolete within a year.

you'd be better off getting a mic and lights and collaborating with somebody, or using that 2k toward a rental for a well-planned project. $2k won't take you very far at all for an all-purpose camera... especially when you consider that you need good sticks and a fluid head (700 bucks minimum right there) to get the most out of your camera on set.

if you're really raring to go, go for the canon t21 (the guts of the 7D inside a non-weather sealed plastic body), a tripod, and sound recorder/shotgun mic. that's the best image quality you can get for what you want to spend, with cheap media cards too, and it's a beautiful still camera... plus you can take your audio recorder with you to shows and you can buy better glass more cheaply than with other cameras-- certainly more cheaply than anything that uses cine lenses.

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there are some OK offerings from panasonic in the 2-3 range for P2 cameras but they have decidedly TV looks (and you can't get away with a P2 for under 350... and it's really only gonna work if you buy two+ and dump to a HD constantly as you shoot). the DVX and Xl-1 are good standbys if you don't mind SD... there are also the latest handycams to check out, but again $2000 is really not a workable price point for a purchase you can feel great about.

I know SoNowThen wanted to sell his, I'll drop him an email and tell him to PM you